Saturday, July 28, 2012

Tool #11 Self Assessing and Reflecting


1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? My favorite tool is Edmodo. I have become familiar with it, and the kids love it too. I plan on using several of the other tools I learned about, and can't wait to use them in the classroom. I will show my students these different sites and options, and let them explore and become familiar with them.

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? I have not transformed my thinking, but I have definitely learned about more options available for me out there on the world wide web. How has your vision for your classroom changed? My vision for my classroom has changed because I will have more technology available to my students, and that is exciting. Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner? No.

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? No, there were not. 

Tool #10


Tool #10 - Underneath it All - Digital Citizenship


1. Discuss at least three things you would want to make sure your students understand about being good digital citizens.

  • Copyright
  • appropriate social networking
  • cyberbullying
2. Share at least one of the resources mentioned above or on the Ed Tech website that you plan to use instructionally.

  • iSafe and Atomic Learning
3. Explain briefly how you would "teach" the idea of digital citizenship to your students.

  • I will use iSage and Atomic Learning to come up with ideas to teach digital citizenship to my students.
4. Explain briefly how you plan to share the idea of digital citizenship with your parents.

  • Through Edmodo
  • Email/monthly newsletter
  • encouraging parents to participate and monitor while their students are using technology

Tool #9

Tool #9: Incorporating Classroom-Based Devices as Tools for Learning


Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective?


  • If you don't tie the technology to the objective, then there is really no point in using the technology.
Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers?
  • Students should be held accountable, because if not, they will veer from the task at hand, and this will cause behavior problems and interrupt in their learning.
    Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like. How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations?
    • Mangahigh is a fabulous website. My students used this last year, and loved it. I could create challenges for them that were either reviews of objectives we had already covered, and it provided lots of extra practice. I could also challenge students by creating harder challenges for those that are more advanced in math. They got to compete against other classrooms in the school, city, and nation. 
    • National Geographic for Kids is a great for science. There is also an app that can be downloaded for the ipad. They students can read different articles, and they change monthly.
    • Study Ladder is great for math. I have created an account and plan on adding my students. It seems that it will be effective, and very user friendly.
      List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations?
      • Animoto Videos- The kids can put their pictures to music on their ipod touch for a science presentation.
      • Brainpop- This could be on a menu for science. The students can watch videos and respond to them on what they learned.
      • Ecosysytems- Good For Science
      • Arithmetick- could be put on a math menu for flash cards
      • Brain Thaw, chalkboard multiplication- good fact practice
        What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Share another way you can see your students using the device as a station.
        • Edmodo is available on the iPads. This can be used in workstations and in other classroom activities.
        • There are tons of apps available out there. I plan on using several more.

        Tool #8: Taking A Look At The Tools


        • iPod touch/iPad
        1. edmodo
        2. create videos
        3. take pictures
        4. assorted learning apps/games
        5. research- groups, pairs, individual
        • Dell Notebook
        1. word processing
        2. Google Docs
        3. Edmodo
        4. Skype
        5. Research
        • Management Ideas
        1. In group projects, I will choose one person that is in charge of navigating on the device. Each group will get one device. 
        2. I draw sticks to assign the devices when the students are using them individually. 

        Tool #7: Reaching Outside your Classroom


        Tool #7 Reaching Outside your Classroom: Online Digital Projects


        Content objective
        TLW work with students in other classrooms via Today's Meet and discuss their findings and experiments with different science topics.

        When you plan to implement

        I will show my students at the beginning of the year how to post on Today's Meet. We will talk about what is an appropriate post as well as how to communicate in a positive manner. 

        What tool(s) you plan to use
        Today's Meet.
        Discovery Education
        Skype


        A brief description of the project (plan - two or three sentences)
        Throughout the school year, my class will communicate with other classes using Today"s Meet and Skyping as they cover certain science and math objectives . They will post new findings as well as their opinions on topics such as matter, geometry, forces, division, fractions etc.


        If you need to find another classroom - We can begin networking with other classrooms right here!
        I will work with other teachers on my team: Ms. Markham and Mrs. Janacek.

        Thursday, June 14, 2012

        Tool #6

        Using Web Tool To Promote Discussion In and Out of the Classroom


        I use Edmodo in  the classroom with my math and science groups and have found this very beneficial to use. To me, it is user friendly, and easier than blogging. I can post links to different sites, videos, and even do polling with it. Here is the link to my page. Edmodo for Mrs. Davis

        Edmodo is what I plan on continuing to use to promote discussion in/out of the classroom. It's easy for the students to learn and it keeps all of the discussions in one place.

        Tool #5

        Bookr can be used in the classroom for students to create books on information they have learned and can be used as a presentation. 4th Grade Storybirds! by davis4thgrade on Storybird Storybird can also be beneficial in my 4th grade class. The students can create stories to go along with different units they learn.

        Tool #4

        I am loving Google Docs! I used it on my personal account all the time. I love the sharing aspect of it. It is so nice that I can collaborate with my math/science partners and create different quizzes, notes, tests, and documents for these subjects. I think this will prove to be a great tool in collaboration!

        Tool #3

        1. Dropbox will be a fantastic resource to use throughout the school year! This will help my students when they are working on a project together, and will help me keep different pictures I have saved on my H drive all in the same place!
        2. You Tube. I frequently use you tube to search different topics in math and science.I always find fun songs in science for the kids on you tube. Here is a song we frequently listened to and sang this year.
         3. School Tube- School Tube is a neat place to share class videos and put them on our school page on School Tube.

        4. Teacher Tube- Teacher Tube was unavailable at the time of this post. I plan on revisiting it in the future because it seems to have a lot of great educational videos and resources for 4th grade.

        5. Discovery Education- This is a site I use ALL the time. I love the videos they have on Discovery Education. I like how they are also categorized by grade level. Here is just an example of 1 that I used last year.
        Magnetism and Electricity

        **COPYRIGHT BLOG- Harry Potter Can Fly. Homegrown, Public Domain, Creative Commons, and Fair Use.  WOW! This was great information that I definitely didn't know all about. It's good to educate the students on these as well.

        Tool #2

        Tool #2
        I visited several different 4th grade blogs for different teachers and educational sites. I find using these is beneficial because they often have links and activities for the same curriculum I am covering. It's great to share ideas with others. I don't usually comment on a blog unless I have a question that needs to be answered. I enjoy reading comments, and often find if I have a question regarding the blog post, my answer can be found in the comments 9 times out of 10. 

        Monday, May 14, 2012

        Tool #1

        Creating a blog is easy to me, as I have done them before. However, what was not easy was during the training over half of our computers wouldn't let us create blogs. My guess is because we were all using the same ip address at the same time? I did not have a problem creating my Voki, but once again, had a problem posting it to my page, even following all of the steps accurately. I did not face any challenges, besides the technology not cooperating with me. :-)

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